Amazon pops into physical space

Online commerce giant Amazon.com is expanding further into the physical retail world with several holiday pop-up shops and a possible permanent store/warehouse in New York City. The pop-up shops are kiosks at an undisclosed number of centers. The only two that Amazon would confirm are located at Westfield properties, in Sacramento, Calif., and San Francisco. The kiosks stock Amazon’s Fire TV, Fire phone, Fire tablets and Kindle e-readers. According to media reports, Amazon also leased space in a New York City building for a small warehouse, where it can hold some inventory of same-day deliveries for local residents and display the retailer’s line of gadgets. Does this mean Amazon is set to launch brick-and-mortar shops around the U.S.? Probably not, says David Simon, CEO of the country’s largest retail landlord. “The market wants to take one scenario and extrapolate it,” he told investors on his firm’s third-quarter earnings call. “I don’t think you can extrapolate anything like that.”